Man wrongly convicted of rape may get $6.3 million

Veteran spent 25 years behind bars

his lawyer alleges misconduct at police lab

June 25, 2010|By Hal Dardick, Tribune Reporter

A man who spent 25 years behind bars for a brutal rape he did not commit stands to get $6.3 million from the city of Chicago under a legal settlement the City Council Finance Committee recommended Friday.

If the full City Council approves Wednesday, the money will go to Jerry Miller, 51, who was an honorably discharged Army veteran with a good work record and no criminal background when he was arrested at 23 on what turned out to be a mistaken witness identification.

Miller was released from prison in 2006. While on parole in 2007, DNA testing determined he did not commit the crime. He has since been pardoned and sued the city in civil court.

That same DNA evidence indicated the crime was committed by a serial rapist, Robert Weeks, who is serving a life sentence but could not be prosecuted for the 1981 rape because the statute of limitations had long since expired.

Miller alleged that the Chicago police crime lab withheld evidence that would have cleared him even before trial.

"It's another one of those sad tales of how sometimes the criminal justice system does not work for all those who come into it," said Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, the committee chairman.

At Miller's trial for the September 1981 beating, robbery and rape, two garage attendants working where the attack took place identified Miller as the offender, Burke said. The victim testified that he was possibly her attacker.

"Mr. Miller was convicted largely on the basis of unequivocal witness identification," said attorney Karen Seimetz, first assistant to the city's top lawyer. "Unfortunately, he very much resembled the actual perpetrator of the crime. And of course, back in 1981 there was no DNA testing."

But Chicago police evidence technician Raymond Lenz reported that tests of semen on the victim's slip were inconclusive, Seimetz said. A highly regarded forensic scientist prepared to testify for Miller if his case went to trial determined that test, for blood types before DNA testing was available, should have ruled out Miller.

John Stainthorp, Millers' attorney, said he was prepared to argue that Lenz had not made a simple mistake.

"There was misconduct," he said. "There was a culture (at the crime lab) of not reporting results unless they helped the prosecution, unless they went along with the police theory."

The department has since disbanded its crime lab and uses technicians from the crime lab run by Illinois State Police.

Miller sought $27 million in the case. "Obviously, we feel great sympathy for the plaintiff in this case, and I think probably the concern was that a jury would feel great sympathy for him as well," Seimetz said.